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Hello everyoneI'm 24 yrs old from Grand Rapids, MI. I have played the piano off and on over the years but I've had only 2 years of lessons and that was a very long time ago. I like to play on the computer, watch movies, and play the piano ofc!I'm currently going to a University but I'm still a little undecided of what to do. Augustina who posted up above is my sister and we like to play piano duets sometime together even though we aren't very good at them Anyways, Look forward to meeting everyone here!

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I am currently uploading all of my written piano sheets onto my blog to make things easier. I also have written out a few more sheets. All free check it out if you want Any questions, PM me

Mark_C
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Registered: 11/11/09
Posts: 20004
Loc: New York

Huh........didn't notice that we have this.And I thought I looked around pretty good too. :-)

I'm new here as of a week ago, even though I already have about a billion posts, mostly lecturing people about their posts.

Much like William Hung :-) "I have no professional training" but I've played the piano seriously for most of my life, started studying very young with "that little old lady around the corner" and have been blessed with great teachers in college and thereafter. My work is psychiatry but I've always made sure to keep some time for the music.

I've been in many of the amateur piano competitions, with varying degrees of occasional success and currently have an entry in the Cliburn YouTube contest.

I first came by here last week out of curiosity to see if there was any discussion of this YouTube contest, and I didn't find much, but I did find more than enough other things to make me want to stay and participate, and it's been great. The level of the members and of the discussion is extraordinary, and people treat other with far more regard and respect than what unfortunately is usually found on the internet.

This is one great place.

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"Everything I say is my opinion, including the facts." :-)

Not sure if this is the appropriate place to post this, but I didn't want to start a new thread just to brag, and this is such a supportive forum/topic.

Queue the drumroll and fanfare!!! Last night I played the recital repertoire for Suzuki level 2 for my teacher and I'm now cleared to move on the level 3. I am so stoked! The first piece in book 3 is the Clementi Op. 36 no. 1, which was one of my Grade 3 Western Board exam pieces when I was taking lessons in the late 50s, early 60s. I used to love that piece. I wonder if I'll get anywhere near to recovering the finger agility I had 50 years ago . . . .

Welcome to the ABF forum! And also, thanks for commenting on the recital! Having just read your introduction, you sound very much like I was many years ago. (except for the violin and wanting to become a doctor). I am an artist by profession, but in college did art, music and theatre. I'm only telling you this because of something my piano teacher and I talked about today. Everything we do in life has bearing on how we play, interpret, and respond to our musical endeavors. I feel very privileged to have had the background in musical theatre, art and piano. I left piano for over 30 years, but have recently returned (after all of life's other things). It sounds as though you have a wonderful background for whatever you choose to do. Of course, we all hope you continue in your musical endeavors. Hey, join in the piano bar or the next recital - we'd all love to hear you no matter how long you've been playing!Cheers!

Hey CMohr, thanks for your warm welcome. What kind of an artist are you? Your background sounds very interesting, I'd love to spend more time on artistic activities in my daily life too! Am kind of toying with the idea, but I don't think it will be easy... I guess for now I'll just focus on piano and singing, and see where I end up!

As soon as I think I can play something that sounds somewhat decent in comparison to what I heard on the recitals - I don't think that'll happen too soon though - I'll give it a try and join in!

Hi Manu, thanks for asking! I'm a printmaker, mostly woodcut & monoprints now. I taught at the university for a couple years, and for the local art center for kids, at-risk teenagers, and young adults. I'm relatively new to the ABF forum, just since last July. I hope you'll find the wealth of information and friendliness I have. I'm sure you will!Cheers!

Most of my life, particularly my work life has been technical in nature. Auto and motorcycle mechanic in my teens, avionics technician in USAF and aviation manufacturing, professional pilot, and currently aviation safety inspector.

But I guess I've always been a closet musician. I remember as a child of 5 or 6 years singing french tunes with my mother and maternal grand parents as she played an almost in-tune upright piano her father got as payment for carpentry work during the great depression. On occasion my father would strum his old ukelele he bought from another GI when he was stationed in the Aleutian Islands during WWII. He taught himself to play it to fill his off duty hours. My mother was also self taught and played by ear. So I guess by some degree, I came by my musical desire through my family. Unfortunately, money was tight, the piano and ukelele fell into disrepair and disappeared from our home by my 10th or 11th year.

But I never lost that desire to be musical, even if it was only to tap out a beat with my fingers. Which was the source of much trouble for me, particularly in school. I would spend my last 25 cents on cheap harmonica or french harp and work out tunes, driving the adults in my home batty.

As it usually goes, adult pursuits of career, dating, family, etc. displace many things in ones life. Not intentionally, but life happens. So here I am, age 62, ready to purchase my first piano and coax the latent musician from my DNA. Wish me well.

Mark_C
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Registered: 11/11/09
Posts: 20004
Loc: New York

Originally Posted By: Mazeppa47

.....Wish me well.

Hank

I wish you well.

But wait, there's more.

What an interesting and varied story. You've done a lot.... and now you're about to do more.

I've been in a number of the "amateur piano competitions" and one of the people that I've met through it is an airline pilot who has also been a serious pianist all his life. And (I'm just free associating here about flying) the fellow who runs the organization that does the Colorado competition (officially called the Rocky Mountain competition) is a retired air force general, and a fine amateur pianist. (His dad was one of the people who established the Air Force.) Must be something about flying.

"French harp" is a new one on me......will have to check it out.

P.S. I wouldn't have imagined that one of the things GI's did during World War II was buy and sell ukeleles.

But I shouldn't joke about it.....People like your dad enabled my family to survive in Europe during that time, and allowed me to be born. I thank you for his service.And I do wish you well.

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"Everything I say is my opinion, including the facts." :-)

* I'm originally from Cebu, Philippines, but grew up in Chicago. I immigrated to the U.S. at age 3.

* I'm a degree'd Engineer.

* I regret my career choice. I've hated my job 10 out of 15 years that I've been in it, but it pays decent.

* I'm a lifelong "C-student", never having given it my all in school.

* I've been addicted to Golf for this entire decade..that is, until piano came along last year.

* I have no natural ability at Golf. I work my ass off just to shoot in the '90s.

* I'll never forget my piano teacher, Mrs. Hessey, who discouraged me from quitting at age 11. She was the only one who saw how talented I was at piano, and I got zero encouragement from my parents (both non-musicians)

* I also played percussion for 5-years. Percussion was my first love. Percussion is why I was able to pick up syncopation so quickly after a 27 year layoff from piano.

* My daughter is the true Virtuoso of the family.

* Scott Joplin is the main reason why I play piano again.

* I love watching amateur pianists on YouTube - so much talent out there.

* I love when my videos on YouTube get hits, ratings, and comments.

Well that's it for now. Check my channel out folks, when you get a chance.

Mark_C
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Registered: 11/11/09
Posts: 20004
Loc: New York

Originally Posted By: cebukid70

.....I'm a degree'd Engineer. * I regret my career choice. I've hated my job 10 out of 15 years that I've been in it, but it pays decent.

Sorry to hear that.....I have a friend (also a pianist) who's in that exact same boat. It seems he has often not minded his engineering work too much, but sometimes can't stand it. I wonder if you went into the field mostly out of 'family pressure' rather than that you were drawn to it. Family pressure was involved to some extent in my career choice too (medicine), but fortunately I truly wanted it myself also, and I've been lucky with it.

Quote:

* I've been addicted to Golf for this entire decade.....* I have no natural ability at Golf. I work my ass off just to shoot in the '90s.

That's darn good!!!!!I used to play a lot myself and wasn't half-bad (or I don't think I was) and only once did I ever break 90. And that was only with some luck.

Quote:

* I love watching amateur pianists on YouTube.....

Don't miss my entry in the Cliburn youtube contest.

Quote:

* I love when my videos on YouTube get hits, ratings, and comments.

Boy, do I know how it is! By the way.......do you want to give a link to one or more of those?

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"Everything I say is my opinion, including the facts." :-)

Mark_C
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Registered: 11/11/09
Posts: 20004
Loc: New York

Originally Posted By: cebukid70

Do you have a YouTube channel? Please describe how one enters that YouTube contest.

Yes -- my channel is larchmontmark. My only video is the one that's in the contest. I'm still not equipped to handle the 'tech' part of uploading and so I had some help on that.

Entering the contest is easy except that it's now too late!!The viewing/voting are still going on (till Nov. 24) but the deadline for submission was Nov. 2.But you'll probably have other chances for it. The Cliburn organization also did this last year, so this is their second such contest, and I'd guess they'll be doing it periodically in the future because it seems to be a success.

All you need to do is, put a video of 5-10 minutes on YouTube and submit it to them with a brief and simple application.

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"Everything I say is my opinion, including the facts." :-)

Thanks for checking out my channel. This long weekend, I'll have to review your Scriabin video again. Again, I'm not familiar with the piece and have no others to compare it to.

Yes, my channel is a mish-mosh of non-piano stuff. Thanks for the compliment on Joplin. I mixed in "The Entertainer" on one of my kids' impromptu recordings of our guinea pigs....funny, but it got 5 ratings - all 5 stars. The player in me would like to think it was due to my playing and not the rodents.. I'm actually rehearsing for a full do-over of "Entertainer" - I know the FULL 1902 version with all the octaves now and I'm letting it ripen a bit...I'm ready to post in the next week or so. "Fur Elise" will be next (a nicer version), and then "Weeping Willow" in a couple months hopefully.

I hope to see more videos from you too. You're a very precise and technically proficient player.

Hi, I am a new lurker of these forums and a new piano player. When I got my piano I got Alfred's Teach Yourself To Play Piano (ISBN: 0882846744). I'm not sure how this relates to the 3 step course that seems popular on these forums. I suppose I should make Alfred's course book 1 my next purchase? Anywho, I live in southeastern PA and starting to look around for an instructor but google is failing me on results, haha. Any good sites for finding someone for lessons? Maybe one day when I get used to the format of the forums and have a bit more time with the instrument I'll post more but I'll maintain my lurker status for now . Oh, I'm 29 years old, have a b.s. degree in computer science/digital media, struggling to find work in our current economy & probably am getting laid off from my current position permanently next year.

I was a brief subscriber to "WebPianoTeacher", but didn't renew since I got better at reading musical notation. I'll admit, it actually did cut down my learning time for one of the pieces I learned, but now I'm too cheap to renew.

There's lots of free instructors on YouTube as well.

In response to:Poster: RyanMortosSubject: Re: OT, Tell us about yourself

Hi, I am a new lurker of these forums and a new piano player. When I got my piano I got Alfred's Teach Yourself To Play Piano (ISBN: 0882846744). I'm not sure how this relates to the 3 step course that seems popular on these forums. I suppose I should make Alfred's course book 1 my next purchase? Anywho, I live in southeastern PA and starting to look around for an instructor but google is failing me on results, haha. Any good sites for finding someone for lessons? Maybe one day when I get used to the format of the forums and have a bit more time with the instrument I'll post more but I'll maintain my lurker status for now . Oh, I'm 29 years old, have a b.s. degree in computer science/digital media, struggling to find work in our current economy & probably am getting laid off from my current position permanently next year.

I joined these forums awhile ago but only recently started posting. Right now, I'm a fourth year science student at university. I've been doing piano for 13 years but have only been enjoying it for the past year. It's so great to find all these people with such passion for the instrument! To think that I was indifferent for so long. Piano playing is such an isolating activity and I'm glad that I found a group like this to join.

All I've done so far is to blast through the RCM grades as fast as I could with minimal practice. I'm going to slow down and hopefully get a more solid foundation in music. My goals are to 1) build up my repertoire, 2) learn to sight read fluently and 3) learn to play by ear and improvise. That will probably take me years and years! I used to play the violin and was part of my city's youth symphony, and I was even concertmaster of my school orchestra for a year. I decided to quit in a fit of rebellion and my playing has really deteriorated over the years. I'm hoping to self re-teach myself when I have time...but with university and piano, that's few and far between! I really love the relaxed and supportive atmosphere of the ABF, by the way.

HI; Completed the book titled "You can play piano" By Amy Appleby" Can anyone tell me what level that course would be? and recommend study books for me to continue further. Levels 1,2,3, I guess. E-Mail Stackman518@aol.com

I'm new to this forum. I took piano lessons for about 4 years when I was a kid and originally majored in vocal music in college, but later changed my focus to theatrical arts. Even later I went back to school and studied computer science. Although I've worked in the computer industry for over 20 years now, music has always been important to me. I've kept on singing, but didn't have a piano until about 5 years ago. After messing around on it for a few years, I finally got serious and went back to study lessons two years ago.

I've been making great progress and can't imagine ever giving it up again. I'm looking forward to meeting other pianists in this forum and gaining insight and knowledge about the playing the piano.

Hi everyone! I'm new here and am returning to playing after a 20+ year hiatus. I'm very excited to get started again and will be purchasing a digital piano fairly soon. I live in beautiful BC (Canada) and can't wait to tinkle the ivories again. I'm sure there is going to be a steep relearning curve but I'm up for the challenge.

Not sure if this is the appropriate place to post this, but I didn't want to start a new thread just to brag, and this is such a supportive forum/topic.

Queue the drumroll and fanfare!!! Last night I played the recital repertoire for Suzuki level 2 for my teacher and I'm now cleared to move on the level 3. I am so stoked! The first piece in book 3 is the Clementi Op. 36 no. 1, which was one of my Grade 3 Western Board exam pieces when I was taking lessons in the late 50s, early 60s. I used to love that piece. I wonder if I'll get anywhere near to recovering the finger agility I had 50 years ago . . . .

Congratulaitions! I am so proud of you! I bet you'll get that agility back. Practice makes perfect! You are a great inspiration to many of us 'older' players!

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“Some people stay far away from the door if there’s a chance of it opening up. They hear a voice in the hall outside and hope that it just passes by.” Billy Joel

Hi everyone I'm new to this forum so I thought I'd introduce myself...

I've been playing piano for 2.5 years now, beginning in July 2007 when I was 19. 19 is a comparatively old age to be starting piano, and I think this would classify me as an adult beginner as well. I've gone through a couple of threads in the forum and your attitudes towards the instrument, and music are SO inspiring. Playing the piano by myself, I've always thought that no matter how hard I practised (I used to play 4 hours a day) I would never be able to reach the standards of the pros, and if I can't, what's the point of practising at all?

But to come across a forum of people who play the instrument with no expectations of excellence, to find people who play the piano simply for the love and serenity of it, that is a humbling idea. I'm not surrounded by anyone musically inclined (and that's a debatable term as well, I believe that if given the chance, anyone will find that they have music in them :)) and no one close to me plays the piano - which makes this solitary activity that much lonelier.

A little about me... I'm from Asia and I will be turning 22 in a few days. I have a background in design, though painting and drawing will always be my first love. Apart from the 1.5 years of piano which I took as a kid, I have zero musical knowledge. Yup, zero. I didn't play any musical instrument in school, and neither was I from choir or anything remotely close to music. I know next to nothing about classical music (though two years of piano did change that a little) and it was only a week ago that I discovered how wonderful it was. The moment of discovery wasn't some sort of a grand revelation; it was quiet and sweet (I was listening to Chopin). Before, I plowed through my practices, focusing on nothing but getting the notes and tone right. But you can't get the 'tone' right if you don't understand the layers and nuances there is to music, and I really think that comes with taking piano as more than an instrument but a form of expression.

I hope to take my Grade 8 ABRSM in March 2011, but in the meantime, I hope also to have fun. I think playing the piano is a lot like painting, you don't realise its beauty until you allow yourself to take in every brushstroke and key without consequence. To quiet your ambitions, forget about comparisons and professionals, and focus on the art in its entirety. I am extremely glad to discover this forum, and really hope to learn something from everyone here.

I joined before Christmas & lurked for a few weeks. Since Christmas I've posted a few times & have been feeling a bit guilty remiss about not introducing myself before I just jumped in.

I live in Vancouver, Canada. I make a living tutoring English (to school kids & adults) & Social Studies (to high school kids). I'll never get rich at it, but there are other rewards.I also volunteer in the pottery studio of a community arts centre. & I've been volunteering every summer since 1998 at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

I started playing piano in June of 2008, at the tender age of 61. I had played some guitar & beginner recorder for a long time, so I could read right hand & knew a bit of basic theory, but I'd never had any formal lessons. In 2008, a friend needed to store her piano somwhere, & the opportunity was just too good to pass up, so I found a teacher & started learning. Last week, I bought the piano from her.

I try to practice an hour a day, but don't always make it. Nonetheless, I usually manage to spend some time at the piano every day. I like it, even if my skills are still limited, & so far my neighbours still talk to me (I live in an apartment).

I've learned a lot of useful things from the forum just in the short time since I joined. Glad I found it!

Welcome, Jouyoussong, and congrats on your "new" piano. Isn't that great, you don't even have to take time out getting used to it, and you know exactly what you are buying. I think when it comes time to turn in my digital I would like to find a friend who needs someplace to store his accoustic baby grand!

With your connection to the Jazz Festival, is that the kind of music you play (or want to play)?

I'd like to play jazz eventually. My teacher has been teaching me to play from a lead sheet, but mostly I just practice the Alfred stuff, & right now I've been listening to a lot of ragtime. I like some of most genres of music. I have everything on my iPod from Glenn Gould to Jerry Lee Lewis. Also Bill Evans, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Don Thompson, Brad Mehldau.

I think my friend was really happy to know where her piano will be living, too - it made it easier for her to sell it.

Just plinking away here on the Pacific in Baja California. That's the other BC to my Canadian friends. Searching this and other forums for online learning resources for this ignorant beginner. First keyboard purchased Monday and this afternoon is day 3 of learning and playing scales.